Sunday, September 21, 2008

The Thing on Johnny's Bed

I am a child of the 70s. As a late baby boomer I experienced much of the 60’s counter culture. However I had the advantage to see the effects of the unbridled freedom on many of those who abandoned themselves in it and the inevitable consequences served as a warning for me.


Free love and free drugs were the motto of the times in which I grew from childhood to adolescence. I had many a friend who never made it to adulthood and if they did, by the time of this writing they are more than likely consigned to the care of a nursing home or an adult care facility.



Johnny was a friend of mine who at the time would do any drug that passed his way. He loved getting high and it did not matter what kind of high or altered experience it was that said chemical induced. His tastes ran the gambit of the day, from uppers to downers from weed to Mescaline. If you knew of the current drug of the day Johnny had been there and done that, and would offer his sage advice to any stoner who wished to avoid a bad experience with the current drug fad of the time.


One night after a long evening of partying and mixing of various pharmaceuticals he went home to sleep his buzz off. In his basement bedroom he listened to some relaxing music and shut off the lights. He did not know how long it was before a loud sound roused him from his half slumber. With a quick flip of a switch his night light came on and he sat up to see what had caused the commotion.


That was when he saw the thing scurry across the floor.


It had quickly made its way from the bathroom to behind a pile of clothes to the left of his bed. He could barely discern what exactly it was but it was small, short and bipedal. It ran faster than his cat and had made the 4 foot run in a split second. It was also very dark.


Panicked, he was unsure as to what to do next. He decided to just stay in the safety of his bed and pulled the covers up a bit to hide in the safe and warm self made cocoon. It was not a squirrel, he saw no tail. This was the northeastern United States so it could not have been any kind of monkey. The odd this was that it looked like a miniature human scuttling across the floor. It did not slump its back as it ran from the restroom to the pile of clothes in the corner. No it looked like a husky little man in dark as it passed into the pile of soiled apparel.


As he sat there looking into the dark recesses of the basement for any movement near the laundry pile, he was sure he saw something afar off in the back of the room. It darted to and from as if it was trapped in the semi darkness of the room and stayed in the safety of the shadows so it would not be fully seen by the young teen in his bed. But it’s frantic movement betrayed that it was seeking escape.


Soon the movement abruptly stopped.


And the shadow grew larger as the thing came closer in the darkness slowly making its way to the edge of the bed.


In the seconds that it disappeared at the bed’s edge, Johnny did not know whether to feel relief or panic. Had it gone back to his worst nightmare to plague him no more, or was it lurking under his bed waiting for him to come out from under the covers so that it might do its diabolical deeds upon his pink soft flesh? The seconds seemed to span an eternity as he waited for a movement or a sign from above the bed or under it. But then as the horror of the reality that was to befall him permeated his mind his spine became as a frozen icicle as if splayed down from a lonely woebegone ledge.


He felt a tug on the comforter that he had so dearly pulled tight to his body and a single lone hand of impish size came over the edge of the bed.


It was soon followed by its equally unwelcome twin.


The comforter pulled down from his clutching hands as the weight of the thing bore down at its edge, and soon the full body of the being came into sight.


It had a face circled in dark oily hair and its dark skin glistened in the ambient lighting. It almost looked human, if a human face could have been forged in the depths of hell by one who had no pattern with which to form it. It had the basics of twin eyes and ears, but they were both disproportionate and at odd angels. The mouth twisted in a grotesque grin and opened to reveal teeth that made no sense for the small confines from which they had emerged.


As it made its way with dire purpose up the sheet Johnny was still frozen in fear with the sight he beheld before him. That it meant him ill will there was no doubt, but as to what he could do with such a creature he was left to his own small wit. Finally as he felt the small feet cross the sensitive skin of his stomach and knew for a certainty that this was no mere illusion and with dread he finally decided to act.


In a blur of motion he flipped the comforter over unto the small beast that dared assault him and with a twist he enclosed it in the billowing cover of the comforter. He then spun the end which he held making a handle of sorts with which he began to then use the whole as a hammer with which he began to pummel the bare cement floor of the basement with unabashed fear.


After a few minutes of ceaseless pounding on the floor, Johnny caved into the fatigue of his over worked muscles and let go off the wadded up comforter. Breathing heavy he fell heavy on the bedside and examined the balled up mass that lay before him.


Whatever the twisted comforter contained the creature did not move any longer. It was a motionless wad of fabric on the cold cement floor. Warily he prod it with his extended foot, but still there was no movement that he could see. With apprehension and a dread he had never experienced before in his short life the young teen began to unwind the fabric of the comforter to find…


Absolutely nothing.


The comforter was empty. He was sure as he repeatedly hurled it against the floor the comforter had contained some considerable mass. But there was simply nothing there.


He breathed a heavy sigh and in an unspoken oath he vowed to never mix again the concoction of narcotics that he had ingested that night. If he could ever remember which ones they were. And through a struggled and fitful night of half sleep he tried to forget the hallucination that had seemed so real. But whenever he closed his eyes, he saw the creature climb up the bed, and he felt the small clawed feet dig into his abdomen as he lay still on the bed in which he now tried to find rest.


He awoke in the morning feeling worse for the wear and with heavy limbs he forced himself into the bathroom to take his shower and to make himself somewhat presentable for the day of work that lay before him.


But as he stepped into the shower he slipped and fell, hitting his head against the thin Plexiglas of the cheap basement shower in his room. The shower floor was slick from an oily residue and as he regained his balance he saw the thick dark red ochre of drying blood that covered its floor. Then as he strained his head in horror he saw his gutted and disemboweled cat lying at the head of the shower, with half of its internal organs missing and its body torn apart as if from some primitive savage attack of a primordial creature from the blackness of hell.


His beloved pet had fell victim to the self same creature that had climbed up his bed that very night to assault him.

If it were not for the attack of his cat, the experience of Johnny could be easily dismissed it all as a psychotic delusion caused by the overindulgence of various mind altering drugs.


But something tore that poor creature apart that night, and made off with various organs.


Was it Johnny in a panic induced drug filled rage? Or was it the creature he saw in his mind altering state of consciousness?


People who dabble in various mind altering substances perceive things that we as people in a normal state of consciousness usually have no discernment of. From the Shaman to the ancient mystery cultic worshipper, people in religious visions induced by chemical enhancement have perceived sbeyond our own and the creatures that inhabit them.


The Bible warns of such use of mind altering substances and classifies it as witchcraft. In fact In the New Testament Koine Greek word for Witchcraft in many passages is the word Pharmakeia/Pharmakeus (Strongs 5331,5332) which literally means medication and is where we derive the word Pharmacy in the contemporary English language. In ancient Greco Roman culture mystery religions often used mind altering substances with the masses to induce spiritual euphoria in its celebrants.


Such use of pharmaceuticals for spiritual epiphanies can easily be traced to Shamanistic practices by various world wide cultures. Experiential knowledge by these various individuals would tend to suggest that use of psychoactive drugs does tend to open the perception of those partaking to an altered state of consciousness that cannot be perceived by the most ordinary beings. It is a supplement to the God ordained spiritual gift of discernment of spirits that can often attract beings of a malicious nature. Some shaman, like many we encounter in our modern society are gifted by God to perceive a different world around them. They can actually see entities and judge such said beings purpose and nature. In aboriginal societies such persons were elevated to the role of a spiritual leader, a shaman who has the gift to sense when oppressive forces are at work and had the power to overcome them. Their role is that of healer, guide and spiritual leader for the group. But many such roles were hereditary. And while many Shaman did not rely upon pharmaceutical enhancements of their gifts, many of their offspring who were not as gifted tended to rely upon artificial means to enhance their abilities. And this abominable practice tends to draw the darkness.


In brief, that is why the Bible classifies witchcraft and sorcery through the words Pharmakeia and Pharmakeus, it is an unnatural way to attain spiritual enlightenment that can often lead to spiritual oppression.


In altered states of consciousness one can often perceive in their altered states beings that dwell in the twilight of reality. And some of these twilight beings can cling onto the person for a lifetime. Draining their soul and ruining their life.


On rare occasions Johnny is afraid of the dark. He fears the flashbacks where he will once again see the little dark man that scurried across the floor. He fears seeing the being that disemboweled and partially ate his cat in the bathtub. He has seen it three times since, but only that one time long ago did it attack anything dear to him or cause any harm. Even clean and sober he feels helpless against the dark forces that he unwittingly unleashed that night long ago in the late 1970s.


Was it all a drug induced illusion? Perhaps. Or did Johnny really see a dark creature from beyond our realm of the senses that lurks in dark places which we cannot perceive?


I dare not guess.


Now well into his 40’s with a lifetime of experiences behind him, nothing Johnny has ever experienced has been so real and surreal at the same time. All he knows is the cat was dead, and the horror from beyond the pit of hell that he saw in that abysmally dark basement years ago.


To him that is enough.


Until next time,

Pastor Swope

26 comments:

Daniel said...

Cool story. My uncle once told us a story that he was wieght lifting in his garage once and when he was lying on his back bench pressing he looked up at the exposed beams of the ceiling and saw a little green man who seems to be carrying an ax.

Who knows . . .

cryptidsrus said...

Great anti-drug commercial there, Swope. :):):)
I must say, Black Elk used drugs as well for some of his more famous experiences, didn't he?
Maybe if a person can hadle the drugs properly then they would be able to get away with using it. Personally, I would not. I do not want my mind losong control in any way shape or form. I already have enough problems controlling it as it is. :)
I wonder if Terrence McKenna ever had these kinds of experiences??? Could have happened. Who knows.
(May he rest in peace).

Sam said...

Well.....

What can I say other than I read this story and realised something within myself. I'm not alone. With the exception of a few details I could have sworn this story was a reference to an exact experience that i've had. However I was not on drugs on the night of my experience, I beat the creature with a leather boot ( weapons are hard to come by when needed the most ) and I had no pets so naturally there was no dead animal in the morning.
While bizarre and frightening at the same time, after confronting it I felt that it was more afraid of me than I was of it.

I only ever saw it a few times after that, it would climb shelving and throw my belongings at me at night to wake me at night - from a safe distance of course.
Thankfully I believe I left it behind when I left the house I was living in at the time as I havent seen it since however certain "happenings" still tend to continue on occasion.

Pastor Swope said...

Thanks for the comment Sierra Madre Hapkido,

What happened after that?

Pastor Swope said...

Thanks for the comment, Cryptidsrus,

In almost every instance of drug use in the spiritual quest I have heard of encounters with the demonic or malevolent entities. Of course Shaman battle these beings to gain personal power. But not all win.

I have often thought that those who experience the horrors of a 'bad trip' are experiencing the same thing, since I know many who have been forever altered by the experience.

Pastor Swope said...

Thanks for the comment Sam,

I have heard many similar experiences of encounters with territorial entities. I am glad that you are no longer plagued. Perhaps you saw the creature and still continue to have the random high strangeness (such as the black cat of the other comment)because of spiritual giftedness and being a sensitive soul.

I'd advise you to draw close to God in whatever faith belief system you hold dear in order to combat these forces when they plague you.

If you want, write me personally at the Paranormal Narthex.

Daniel said...

"Thanks for the comment Sierra Madre Hapkido,

What happened after that?"

Nothing. It seemed to be an isolated event because I don't recall him ever giving an update. But one of my cousins (who was my age) and I used to get kicks out of locking his younger brothers in the garage at night and telling them the green man was going to get them =)

Anonymous said...

That's an interesting story. I've heard of little creatures like that but have never seen them myself. Not that I'm complaining about seeing one of them.

Thanks for the interesting story.

Amber Godfrey said...

This poor man needs to realize that there is not only darkness, but there is also light. and the dark and evil beings are not all that strong. they are nothing compared to the light that we can choose to accept or not accept. But if he accepts that there can be light in his life, and shines that light within him upon this spirit who is merely taking advantage and harassing him.. then he needs not be afraid anymore

BFilmFan said...

From the description in the article, it sounds like a description of a Domovi, which is house spirit in Slavic folklore.

Or perhaps the Spanish derivation, known as a Duende, who are reported to be evil, green-skinned, red-eyed little monsters and steal the souls of children.

As I recall from several different books, none of these spirits are supposed to like cats.

Anonymous said...

Pastor Swope,

I have just finished reading every article on your blog and can truly say that I have never come across anything remotely similar! It is so very refreshing to hear your views on the paranormal from a Christian standpoint. I have been fascinated with the unknown for some time, and was often at odds about the church's view (or rather blatant ignorance) of all things fortean.

Having been raised SDA (Seventh Day Adventist), such things were never discussed - oh, unless of course it was an exorcism story or something demon related!

I no longer subscribe to that specfic religion, as I feel that many of the fundamental teachings sowed the seeds of guilt and self-doubt. I lost all faith - and for a time completely stopped believing in God. Funnily enough, it was my interest in the unknown that made me realize that God indeed exists and He loves us, and wants us to make choices for ourselves; Choices that are based in love and non-judgemental understanding.

Thank you so much! Keep up the great work!!

Warm Regards,
Stephany

Anonymous said...

i had a similar experiance when i was about 17yrs old.i had been living with a girlfriend of mine for sometime. and like most people i had ( and still do) some drugs. although i had not done any that night.i remember lying in bed in that half asleep stage,looking at the light from my roommates bedroom door.suddenly i felt something grab my left foot. it started tugging,hard. i felt my body lying one way yet i could feel myself being pulled in another.it felt quite strange, like i had two bodies.i tried to call out to my roommate but could not make a noise over a gasping whisper.i never felt any fear over what was happening, just irritation over being woke up in that manner.my roommates cat (who seemed to have an uncanny sence of the unseen)jumped into bed with me, sat by my head and looked in the direction of the pulling. when he did this it stopped.i never saw anything but i can still feel that feeling to this day. i wish what ever it was it could have communicated to me in another way.i feel like i missed my chance to receive something, through my own spritual stubborness .

Pastor Swope said...

Thanks for the Comment Stephany,

The first church I came to after my conversion was a Fundamentalist church. So I understand 100%!

Motivation by guilt and oppression is intellectual and spiritual bondage. I am so glad you have been touched by the love of God, and I pray all is well!

Thank you for the high praise!

I am very much blessed and humbled.

Anonymous said...

Like Johnny, I saw horrible looking entities in my younger year. Unlike him, though, these experiences ocurred in a completely natural way & without the use of any foreign substance (even felt them climbing into bed with me) and some of the things that happened to me could be interpreted nowadays as alien abductions... tried alternating both prayer & meditation and nothing worked for very long... to make a very long story short, during my mid-40's I decided to explore an entheogen
here's a synopsis of my first experience:

"After several years of reading about entheogens, I finally decided to experience one firsthand & attended a Peruvian shaman ceremony. I decided to fast beforehand, but once I arrived at the designated farm, people were eating lentil soup and so, rather hungry, I joined! After about an hour of discussion, we meditated and drank from paper cups.
I went there prepared to vomit and that never happened.
I went there expecting to 'see' snakes &/or cities in the flow of vomit and that never happened, either.
So slowly as to be nearly imperceptible, all the cells in my body lit up and after traveling through what I call the fractal tunnel, my consciousness expanded wide enough to encompass first the galaxy and then the multiverse.
An inner dialogue began and at every stage, I was asked repeatedly if I wanted to 'see' more, of course, mentally I answered: 'I'll follow you wherever you wish to take me'. I saw the birth and death of entire galaxies as though they were an endless dance of spiraling flowers. An immense consciousness permeated the center of everything & I was part of it. Rather like an individual filament of light encoded consciousness whose single strand continued and was all strands. I was dead and this was the samadhi I had read about. And the universe was inside and yet, I could feel the floor and hear the other people moving and having their own experiences. Everything was so painfully beautiful that I wept in love and then I perceived the words 'manifest me in love, daughter'. I swam in that all encompassing ocean of love until I could hardly contain it all and when I was sure I couldn't take it all in, I'd use what chi expanding techniques I know. There seemed to be no end to the depths of consciousness, only to my capacity to share and perceive.
The end was as gradual as the beginning, that expanded intelligence retreated step by step and at each level, it reassured me that it was still present. The connection is always present, we are usually just too distracted to notice....
In total, I drank the decoction inside three small paper cups... somewhere around 150mm (?)
I am planning to fast and keep a 2-3 day fast before attending the next ceremony. This experience felt too sacred to approach in less than a traditionally respectful manner."

At this point in my life, though, I've desisted from walking that path
I am not truly equipped to keep on confronting Infinity and that nondual level of consciousness, where:

"The Kingdom (of Heaven) is inside you and it is outside you
77"Split a piece of wood, and I am there
Lift up the stone and there you will find me"

if I need to keep on functioning adequately at a regular everyday job...

and yet, because G'aya guided me to the One
in these last few years, there have been no more encounters of the weird kind
and for that
I am grateful to God
who allowed certain plants to serve us
if properly used
with respect and humility
as reminders
that God's love is VERY real...

Pastor Swope said...

Thanks for your welcome comment Anonymous,

As 1/8th Native American Indian and through personal experience I understand your experiences. Johnny used psychedelics and many, many other drugs as an escape from personal demons and as a result I think he encountered a real one.

In the 70s and early 80's I was an avid follower of Carlos Castaneda and put into practice much of what he wrote about. It was my first experience with Demonic entities, but I also found the love of God as you have. It lead me to the Love of Christ and even through the darkest hour He has been there.

God put everything and everyone on this earth for a purpose. In indigenous North American Spirituality that is legally recognized and guided through supervision of the Elders of the Faith or Church the true seeker of God can find a life changing experience.

But casual and recreational drug use only leads to the destruction of the soul and Demonic oppression and in many cases full blown possession.

I am so glad you have found God's love.

God Bless.

Anonymous said...

For about two decades of my life I attended various fundamentalist/pentecostal type churches, and I must say that this story sounds an awful lot like the type of story that one of their mean-spirited evangelists (or sometimes even a pastor) would tell, in an effort to scare the flock and keep them in line. The implication was that if you didn't do exactly what the church told you to do (basically become as mean and nasty as they were, hating almost everyone not of their particular denomination and those who did not behave in ways they approved of), YOU might get a visit from something like this at night. Of course they were not above embellishing such stories; if they told the story it would probably wind up that the creature ate a baby (the big reason I finally left was because they played so fast and loose with the truth that I realized I couldn't trust anything they said - basically they were control freaks and would say whatever was necessary to keep people under their control, whether it was true or not).

Now having said that, I'm NOT saying I disbelieve this story. The question I think needs to be asked is where did this creature come from and how did it happen to arrive in Johnny's room? It could have just been coincidence that it arrived in Johnny's room as opposed to that of, say, a church. Then again, it may have been that Johnny, in his drug-induced state, wasn't particularly careful about choosing a place to live and picked a place with so much negative energy that it would have repulsed most people.

But I think that perhaps the most likely explanation is that somehow Johnny did in fact have something to do with it. It's possible that he somehow opened an interdimensional rift and this creature came through. The fact that the creature killed the cat may mean nothing more than that it was a predator (in fact it may have been karma as far as the cat was concerned - ever seen what even well behaved housecats will do to birds or chipmunks if you let them outside?). But another possibility is that it was a "tulpa", a nightmare that Johnny was actually able to manifest into reality. The self-preservation instinct of most people would probably prevent them from creating anything that could do them serious harm (except maybe in a hollywood horror movie) but such protection might not extend to an animal in the home, especially an animal that is itself a predator.

The thing is, for all those years I was in church, in all the prayers I said I never really felt any close connection to God. I think that maybe what Jesus really came to teach us was how to obtain true spiritual enlightenment, and this is the information that the churches (first the Catholic church and then all the "breakaway" churches that came along later) have been withholding from us for the past 1700 years or so. The teachings of Jesus have been replaced by the teachings of Paul, who supposedly was a reformed Pharisee yet his writings indicate he wasn't all that "reformed", even getting knocked off a horse didn't cure him of his legalistic ways. And the church chose to preach and teach legalism (that is, to exert control) rather than to show people how to seek the light that Jesus came to bring us. I'd love to know what early writings they are hiding away in the Vatican that we aren't allowed to see or know about because if we really knew what Jesus wanted us to know, we wouldn't need pastors or priests to pretend to act as intermediaries for God, and their control would go right out the stained-glass window!

Although I have never used illegal drugs, I sometimes wish that I'd been able to try something like a "magic mushroom" or something of that nature, so at least I could experience SOMETHING beyond what my five senses can tell me. Most of us are truly the blind leading the blind; we don't know anything of the spiritual realms and we even (at least some of us) deny they exist because the "religious" leaders have withheld the truth from us for so many centuries that now they may not even have it themselves anymore. It's no wonder Jesus spoke so harshly about the religious leaders - maybe he saw how they were going to pervert his teachings, and attach his name to a dead religion that not only does not know spiritual truth, but actually discourages anyone from trying to find it.

Anonymous said...

woah,
I've had some absolutely terrifying sleep paralysis type situations in which I've seen similar things except I was frozen.
While there are scientific and mundane explanations for sleep paralysis, I prefer to split the difference, alowing also for the supernatural and spiritual.

I've had three types of Sleep Paralysis expieriences:
Evil, neutral , and benevolent.

The neutral expieriences started when I was in college:
I'd hear a buzzing sound/sensation in my ear and mind, and I'd feel as if I was begining to float.
One time while in my dorm room, I was listening to ambient music and saw what looked like a multi-coloured 'door' (for lack of a better descripticve", etc...
The 'evil' expieriences began after college.
I was expieriencing very high levels of depression etc...

I'd have the same sorts initial feelings, but then I'd be struck with feelings of absolute terror.
One time i was frozen but able to move my eyes, and I saw a frightening looking creature that looked like the spawn of a three-way between a pygmy elephant, a satyr, and a goblin.
As for 'nice' expieriences:
A number of years ago, I awoke from a dream and saw inthe corner of my room the siloete of a figure standing in front of a source of pure white light. the light had a substance to it, in that it was thick and moving (somehow). I was frozen, unable to move, but felt absolute peace, and as the light began to fade, I found myself able to move again.
Interesting stuff

Anonymous said...

A woman I'm casually dating told me about how when she was 6 or so one night, trying to sleep , she sensed a presence and turning over in bed, she saw a creature that looked surprisingly likea leprachaun with a blank expression and somewhat 'see-through', it fereaked her out a bit, but it seemed to just be 'checking' her out. so she turned over and tried to ignore it, but couldn't deal with the 'being watched' feeling, so she turned back and told 'it' to go away and swiped near it", right after this, she felt as if a giant hand grabbed her and she was tossed across her room, after which she got back into bed and the thing was gone.
she mentioned this to her mother the next day, and her mother told her that she had seen the same thing when she was a child.
Normally I'd say BS, but this woman is a very practical person, not given to magical thinking at all, and she very hesitantlty told mne about this.

Pastor Swope said...

Thank you for the Comment J.

I understand where you are coming from. I heard many manipulative stories myself.

This one was related to me when I myself was a stoner in the 70's by Johnny. At the time I had never attended church on a regular basis or had a personal faith in Christ.

This story was not meant to be in that vein, just the way Johnny himself put it and I made sure not to be the walking pharmacy during my 'wanna be' hippy days.

I am sorry that you did not feel close to God in prayer because of the stifling nature of the church you attended. That is an experience all too common. There was a group around called Fundamentalists Anonymous to help people get over the guilt manipulation that devastated their spiritual lives.

I agree with you that many churches put too much emphasis on Paulist Theology instead of focusing on Christ. In fact many of my Pastor friends do not call them selves Christian anymore, they call themselves a follower of Jesus Christ and try to live in the hope and love that He emphasized in His teachings.

Do not give up, I think you have a keen sense of spirituality and one day the bondage of the past will be lifted for you. I will pray it does. I know all too well personally how devastating that can be.

I truly believe that the judgementalism that emanates from so many churches is really a demonic force to enslave those who have a gift an call to share the love of God and Christ.

God does love you J.

Anonymous said...

Amen to that, J.!

Anonymous said...

Ooh, real paranormal! You call yourself a Christian? What an idiot. You must believe in "odd angels."

Pastor Swope said...

Hello Everyone,

Funny how God works.

Not in the funny 'ha ha" though.

I met with Johnny's son John this week.

He has suffered from a second stroke in the last 10 years at the age of 45.

Pray for Johnny.

Not a drug warning as more of a warning of the dangers of wanton excess.

You can mix any chemicals in your body to produce an effect, but at what price?

Again.

Pray for Johnny.

His children although adults, still need his love and support,
although at this time it is but a shadow of his former self.

Pastor Swope said...

Thanks for the comment Anonymous,

Real paranormal indeed.

Case in point. Go to a substance abuse counselor A.S.A.P.

Your comments are always welcome no matter what state of mind you are in.

Just know in here you are accepted, and we do really love you.

Kidsis said...

Interesting story! That reminds me of a couple of different things:

- I took a Native American Spirituality class in college about 8 years ago. I formed a fast friendship with one of the other ladies in the class and she told me that one time she woke up one night and saw a figure the size of her younger son looking at her from the shadows. She knew it wasn't her son though because a) her son had crawled into bed with her and when she looked back to the creature's general area after she checked to see if her son was still next to her, the creature was gone, and b) the creature had glowing red eyes.

Due to the nature of the class and the area in which I live (NE Oklahoma), the woman was part Cherokee and had a trace of a Native American upbringing as well as having married a Native American husband with more traditional ways. She explained it away as a a visit from the "little people" under rather neutral circumstances.

- One of my mother's friends from high school came back into her life earlier this year. She confided in my mom that she could see "colors" around people and was able to interpret what they meant. She had spoken with one of the pastors at my parents' church and he first thought it was a symptom of demonic possession. After she spoke with another friend of ours, it was discovered that she actually had a spirit of discernment (which the pastor later realized and then apologized for speaking hastily). This woman was a drug user for a few years and then she was diagnosed with Hepatitis C and had been on Chemo for that on and off for a number of years. Her gift now makes more sense and now has a "cause".

Anonymous said...

What is the source of the photo used for the story? Is it an authentic photograph or a fake? Would like to know more about it please, thank you!

Pastor Swope said...

Hi Anonymous,

As a source I used about 5 different photos and photoshoped them with various manipulations. I do the same with all my blog art.